We present the design, fabrication and optical characterization of an ultra-long silicon ring resonator for opto-microwave applications. The investigated optical ring resonator has been fabricated under silicon-based processes using the silicon on insulator photonic platform. An add-drop ring resonator with integrated grating couplers was designed in the shape of a spiral in order to reduce the footprint of the device. After fabrication, the samples have been tested in the optical domain. At the wavelength of 1.55 μm, the optical transmission spectrum has shown a free spectral range (FSR) of 16 GHz which was in good agreement with the design target. The extinction ratio reached up to 19.5 dB for the drop port. Concerning the quality factor of the resonator, we got values up to 1.74 × 105 . After these tests, a device has been selected to be introduced in the loop of an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) system. Under these conditions it turned to be possible to generate oscillations with a peak at frequency of 16 GHz, showing a good agreement with the previously measured FSR.
We demonstrate a very simple and low-cost method based on one-photon absorption direct laser writing technique to fabricate arbitrary two-dimensional (2D) polymeric submicrometer structures with controllable form. In this technique, a continuous-wave green laser beam (532 nm) with very weak power is tightly focused into a positive photoresist (S1805) by a high numerical aperture (NA) objective lens (OL), depolymerizing the polymer in a local submicrometer region. The focusing spot is then moved in a controllable trajectory by a 3D piezo translation stage, resulting in desired structures. The low absorption effect of the photoresist at the excitation wavelength allows obtaining structures with submicrometer size and great depth. In particular, by controlling the exposure dose, e.g. the scanning speed, and the scanning configuration, the structures have been created in positive (cylindrical material in air) or negative (air holes) form. The 2D square structures with periods in between
0.6 μm and 1 μm and with a feature size of about 150 nm have been demonstrated with an OL of NA = 0.9 (air-immersion). The fabricated results are well consistent with those obtained numerically by using a vectorial diffraction theory for high NA OLs. This investigation should be very useful for fabrication of photonic and plasmonic templates.
The main advantage of an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) is the ability to synthesize directly very high spectral purity
frequency in microwave domain. Beside applications in radar, telecommunication and satellite systems, OEO can also be
used in sensor applications such as refractive index or distance measurements. However, the long-term stability of the
OEO is easily affected by ambient environment variations. The optical fiber loop effective refractive index varies
corresponding to its surrounding temperature changes. Consequently, it makes the optical transmission path inside the
fiber loop differ from the initial state, leading to oscillation frequency changes. To stabilize the single loop OEO, it is
essential to keep its high Q elements in a well-controlled thermal box as much as possible. Unfortunately, in the real
implementation condition, this requirement is difficult to be satisfied. In this paper, we present a new technique to
estimate the oscillation frequency variation under the room temperature by using a vector network analyzer (VNA).
Experimental results show a good correlation between OEO oscillation frequency drift and the phase measured by the
VNA. This technique can be implemented to apply corrections when using the OEO as a distance variation or a
refractive index measurement tool. We also tracked the temperature of the fiber loop at the same time with the VNAbased
experiment to compare two correlations of temperature and phase with OEO oscillation frequency.
Optoelectronic oscillators are classically based on a feedback fiber loop acting as a delay line for high spectral purity.
One of the problems due to long fiber loops is the size and the requirement of temperature control. Going toward
integrated solutions requires the introduction of optical resonators with a very high quality factor. A structure based on
silicon on insulator material has been designed for application to an oscillator working at 8 GHz. The micro-resonator
has a stadium shape with a ridge of 30 nm height, 1 μm width, a millimetric radius and a gap of some microns in
agreement with the required free spectral range. A quality factor of 500000 can be achieved leading to an equivalent
fiber loop of 2 km.
KEYWORDS: Modulators, Electrooptic modulators, Modulation, Signal detection, Control systems, Microcontrollers, Optical amplifiers, Temperature metrology, Electro optic polymers, Signal processing
The stability of an electro-optic modulator has been significantly improved by implementing an original temperature
control system. In particular, the evolution of the modulator characteristics can be followed through its nonlinear
behavior by detecting the second harmonic of a low-frequency modulation signal; the evolution can be investigated with
a higher accuracy by measuring also the phase-shift of this harmonic signal. Two digital boards have been developed
with PSOC microcontrollers. The first one is associated with a small power amplifier for the temperature control; the
second board is used to analyze the behavior of the electro-optic modulator. By thermal control of the modulator it is
possible to reduce significantly the drift of its optical bias point.
Optoelectronic oscillators have been studied since many years now, their high spectral purity being one of
their most interesting quality for photonics signal processing, communication or radio over fiber systems.
One part of the structure is a long fiber optic feedback loop acting as a delay line. Different techniques have
been introduced such as multiple loops in order to get very narrow spectral lines and large mode spacing.
One of the problems due to long fiber loops is the size and the requirement of temperature control. In order
to go toward integrated solutions it is also possible to introduce optical resonators instead of a delay line
structure (as for classical electronic oscillators). But such resonators should present very high quality factor.
In this paper we demonstrate solutions using resonators based on polymer materials such as PMMA-DCM.
Structures such as micro-rings, micro-disks or stadium-shaped resonator have been realized at the laboratory.
Quality factor of 6000 have already been achieved leading to an equivalent fiber loop of 19 m for an
oscillator at 10 GHz. But it has been already theoretically proved that quality factor greater than one
thousand hundred could be obtained. These resonators can be directly implemented with Mach-Zehnder
optical modulators based on electro-optic polymer such as PMMA-DR1 leading to integrated solutions. And
in the future it should be also possible to add a laser made with polymer material, with a structure as
stadium-shape polymer micro-laser. The fully integrated photonic chip is not so far. The last important
function to be implemented is the tuning of the oscillation frequency.
Electro-optic modulators based on polymer material are very promising devices because of the expected very high modulation rate and low cost fabrication process. These modulators are mainly based on Mach-Zehnder structure, but phase modulators associated to polarizer and analyzer can also be used. Until now there are no real devices commercially available. One of the problems concerns the temperature stability. Because of the optical power of the laser beam and the absorption of the polymer material used for the optical waveguide there is a slight temperature evolution of the modulator leading to a change in the bias point of the modulator and then to a slow drift of the bias point leading to a dissymmetry of the optical modulated signal. This evolution can be compensated by adding a small DC value to the voltage applied to the electrodes. A control loop has been designed and tested in order to stabilize the bias point of the modulator. This loop acts as a synchronous detection with a low frequency modulation at 500 Hz and a practical detection at 1 kHz. By this way it is in fact the first order derivative of the signal which is stabilized leading to the signal symmetry control. This low frequency signal can be added without any problem to the informative modulating signal. By using this control loop the modulator can be used for a very longer time than without it. Of course a temperature control of the modulator by a Peltier effect module should also be implemented for a better and complete stabilization.
This paper describes the design of an optical to microwave converter. The physical effect used for the conversion is based on the non-linear behavior of an electro-optic polymer material. The microwave frequency is generated by the way of an optical waves mixing process, which means by the frequency difference of two optical waves propagating simultaneously inside an optical waveguide. If one of these optical waves is modulated by an informative signal, the microwave signal will infer the modulation. The converter is designed for working at the 1.55 μm optical telecommunication wavelength. The active waveguide is built with the crosslinked PMMA-DR1 electro-optic copolymer, and the cladding layers are made of NOA material. For the first characterizations there is no need of a master-slave configuration for the sources, and the two optical waves are produced by highly stable and fine tunable lasers. The microwave signal is collected on a strip line which characteristic impedance has to be adapted to the conversion process. Simulations have been conducted showing the feasibility of the method and by matching the velocities of the microwave signal and of the optical signal it is possible to create constructive microwave photonic mixing at more than 60 GHz. To achieve the conversion it is necessary to work with a traveling-wave configuration. Some special test devices have been built for the determination of the NOA material permittivity leading to a precise adjustment of the effective index of both optical and microwave waveguide. From all these measurements it has been possible to design completely the device, which is now under test.
The purpose of this paper is to present the design of an electro-optic polymer traveling-wave waveguide photodetector operating in the 1.55 μm wavelength optical telecom window; this component seems to be completely new. Thanks to equal light and microwave speeds in the polymer material waveguides, microwave photonic mixing at frequencies as high as 60 GHz should be reached by the traveling-wave device. The component is based on three waves mixing technique; therefore it is a band-pass photodetector. The physical effect of the three waves mixing will be analyzed, and then a design of the component will be proposed.
The purpose of this paper is to describe the conception of the detectors developed for a system dedicated to quantum keys distribution on optical fiber network. Because there is still no commercial single photon sources quantum keys distribution is usually based on faint laser pulses transmission. Detection of such signals is very difficult but it can be improved by the use of a clock signal. Detectors based on APD can be designed to use this clock signal. In order to have a very good synchronization of both quantum keys and clock signals it is necessary to minimize chromatic dispersion in the optical fibers. The innovation presented in this paper is to use modulators effects leading to a very small change in the wavelength of the modulated signal. So it is possible to get two very close wavelengths dedicated to both signals, avoiding dispersion in the optical fiber. The system is designed at the 1.55 μm and is based on an acousto-optic modulator and an optical filter to separate both wavelengths at the reception. The detector is realized with an InGaAs APD, working in gated mode at liquid nitrogen temperature in order to reduce dark counts.
Photonics devices based on polymer optical waveguides are widely studied now and some commercial announcements have already been published. Nevertheless they are not been followed by really available products and it is still necessary to improve such kind of devices. The aim of this paper is to present a new structure for a polymer electro-optic modulator. The electro-optic polymer material is PMMA-DR1. This electro-optic polymer is well known by its high frequency bandwidth of modulation and its functional robustness. Nevertheless, its half-wave voltage remains relatively high, that is why a new configuration is proposed decreasing the half-wave voltage. The new device, which is fully described, is based on the classical Mach-Zehnder optical modulator structure, to which a completely new loop structure is added. Thus the optical waveguides are designed in order to increase the active length and so reducing the half-wave voltage. Otherwise the device is designed for a complete planar realization. The RF strip lines are also designed according to the loop structure with 50Ω characteristic impedance. A device has been realized and its optical are checked at 1.55μm wavelength. Electronic characteristics should be determined by the way of spectrum and network analyzers at frequencies up to 2GHz. All the measurements should show the feasibility and efficiency of the new structure.
Faint laser pulses are practical signal sources in quantum key distribution. The photon statistics has been measured by recording every photo-counts moment and leading directly to the Mandel parameter of the photon distribution. Two different types operation of a single mode laser diode have been considered: either direct pulsing of the driving current or CW emission followed by pulse-shaping using an acousto-optic modulator. In both cases, it has been found that for practical attenuations, the photon distribution in each light pulse follows a poissonian statistics.
Laser range finders are now rather developed with a wide application field concerning indoor robotic, non destructive testing, inspection and security control or automotive intelligent cruise control. Interferometry, self-mixing, fringe pattern projection, triangulation and flight time measurement methods are the most important methods. Flight time based methods require a modulation of the optical beam, which can be made by pulse, sine wave or chirp signal or even pseudo random code signal. The aim of this paper is to present rather simple techniques leading to low cost systems. Pulse modulation is typically interesting in case of wide range measurement, but is also developed for medium range. The main interest of the phase-shift measurement method is the conversion of a short time of flight interval into a wider interval through the phase of the signal. That is obtained either by the heterodyne process which keeps the phase shift constant or by the intermediate frequency sampling technique. This phase-shift method is dedicated to medium or short range. Modulating signal with a wider spectrum should lead to more powerful system. In this way the FMCW-like method, based on a chirped frequency signal, is a new technique developed as for radar leading also to rather simple systems. Nevertheless the implementation of the method present some problems. With more complex modulating signals the detection needs important signal processing developments, but it should be possible to use the technology already developed for telecommunication systems or for GPS by the way ofpseudo-random codes. Finally it is possible to move towards smart systems by combining several modulating signals and introducing digital control in the system.
The purpose of this paper is to present the conception of what could be a smart laser range finder. A smart distance sensor should be able to adapt its different parameters to the real measurement case and to the different steps of the measurement process. The system chosen here is based on phase shift measurement method. The implemented solution for phase shift measurement is the IF sampling method that means under-sampling technique, associated to digital synchronous detection. Its main advantage is a global simplification of the electronic system, leading to a quite simple development of a twofold modulation frequency system that is required for high resolution measurement within a wide range. Frequencies at 10 MHz and 240 MHz have been retained and the system is designed with only one PLL, which is a digital one, reducing the phase noise. The emission and detection parts are designed for wideband operation and to be digitally controlled, in order to adapt their characteristics to the measurement situation. The whole measurement sequence is described, including different steps at both modulation frequencies, and calibration of the system.
The purpose of this paper is to present a general method to estimate the intrinsic performances of some laser range finders based on flight time measurement. Classically this flight time can be measured directly, or after a conversion into a phase shift, or into a beat frequency. We prose here a criterion based on signal processing notions, as matched filtering to get the best detection, and ambiguity function to estimate the quality of the detection. The concept of characteristic length is introduced and applied to the different kind of laser range finders, which suggest a new possibility for flight time measurement.
The systems presented in this paper are based on phase-shift measurement. The first solution developed here is the heterodyne technique associated with direct counting. An improvement of the system consists in using digital PLL to reduce the phase noise. A second technique based on under-sampling technique, applied to digital synchronous detection, is described. Its main advantage is a global simplification of the electronic system, leading to a quite simple development of a twofold modulation system. This new technique is also very interesting to move towards a kind of smart range finder able to adapt different parameters to the different steps of the measurement.
The laser range-finder presented here has been designed as a part of a non-destructive testing system. The whole conception of the system is detailed. The method is based on phase-shift measurement, but using electronic heterodynage to provide a good resolution. An RF card is the heart of the system, including two VCO and two active mixers, providing the modulation signal and both reference and phase shifted signal at intermediate frequency of 125 kHz. The emitter is a laser diode at 12 mW average output power, the receiver uses an avalanche photodiode. We also find an amplification board with an 80 dB dynamic range AGC, and the frequencies control board. The phase shift is estimated by direct counting with more than 10 bits resolution, that means about 0.4 mm for a 60 cm range without phase ambiguity. The amplification level, obtained from the AGC loop, gives an estimation on the measurement quality and on the target surface. A PC computer controls the range-finder through an interface specially developed. It is based on two PLD, one for the general sequencement and one for the averaging of the data. The obtained data are stored in a 2Kb FIFO memory waiting a data request for the PC or generating an interrupt if it is full. The interface is easy to drive from the PC with the choice for averaging value, and amplification criterion. The imaging should be provided by scanning mirrors. Measurement of the target distance and estimation of the target surface conducts to laser imaging. Altogether the system is rather compact due to the disposition of the cards and also rather low-cost.
THe purpose of this paper is to show to what kind of application laser range-finders can be used inside Autonomous Intelligent Cruise Control systems. Even if laser systems present good performances the safety and technical considerations are very restrictive. As the system is used in the outside, the emitted average output power must respect the rather low level of 1A class. Obstacle detection or collision avoidance require a 200 meters range. Moreover bad weather conditions, like rain or fog, ar disastrous. We have conducted measurements on laser rangefinder using different targets and at different distances. We can infer that except for cooperative targets low power laser rangefinder are not powerful enough for long distance measurement. Radars, like 77 GHz systems, are better adapted to such cases. But in case of short distances measurement, range around 10 meters, with a minimum distance around twenty centimeters, laser rangefinders are really useful with good resolution and rather low cost. Applications can have the following of white lines on the road, the target being easily cooperative, detection of vehicles in the vicinity, that means car convoy traffic control or parking assistance, the target surface being indifferent at short distances.
Whatever laser range-finding technique is used, the operation principle is based on optical information coding and transmission. Indeed, the optical head represents the common point within the whole of telemetric methods. So, its precise characterization presents a major interest. The emission part is performed by a laser diode and the reception by an avalanche photodiode coupled with filtering and RF amplification. The optical path is along coaxial alignment if an appropriate geometry is chosen. The whole systems may be considered as a quadriple with the emitter as the input and the receptor as the output. Therefore, the network analyzer is particularly adapted to a global study of such a quadripole. With a measurement protocol, the performances of the optical head can be then evaluated in terms of optical and electronic properties. Nevertheless, according to the great variety of angles to be measured, many range-finding methods can be used, as the frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar ranging method, the phase-shift measurements, either with heterodyne method or direct synchronous detection. Whereas two of these, the FMCW or the heterodyne phase detection, have already been developed in our laboratory, we only introduce as a new method the synchronous detection.
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